Earth formation disintegrating drill



Oct. 6, 1953 EARTH FORMATION DISINTEGRATING DRILL Filed Nov. 28, 1949 "a? j g 12 9 w vi 9 12 igflakw 5 William L.

INVENTOR. P arse ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 6,1953

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EARTH FORMATION DISINTEGRATING DRILL William LZPearce, Houston, Tex.

ApplicafienNovember 28, 1949,iSeria1N0. 129,811

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to an earth formation disintegrating drill.

An object of the invention .is to ,provide a drill of the character described specially designed for drilling earth bores and which is very efiicient for that purpose, partially due to the fact that the rolling disintegrators or cutters are very efficiently cleansed to prevent the packing of the earth formation between the cutting teeth or blades.

It is a further feature of the invention to provide a drill of this type wherein the disintegrating cutters cover a large area of the bottom of the bore and furthermore are provided with the rolling cutters with means to prevent the packing of earth material between the cutting blades.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following specification which is illustrated by the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a vertical, sectional view, partly in section;

Figure 2 is a vertical, sectional view taken at right angles to that shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a bottom end view; and

Figure 4 is a side elevation.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, wherein like numerals of reference designate the same parts in each of the figures, the

numeral l designates the drill head, which is hollow and which is substantially cylindrical in said elevation.

The lower end of the body is substantially hemispherical, and at its lower side is provided with the outlet openings 2. The drill has an internally threaded shank 3 into which the lower end of the drill stem 4 may be screwed.

Across the lower end of the drill there are the inwardly tapering, long cutters or disintegrators 5, 5, whose inner ends abut and whose outer ends bear against the lower ends of the downwardly converging anchors 6, 6 which are integral with the head and are armlike in shape. The cutters 5 have frusto-conical shaped bodies which taper inwardly, and they are mounted to rotate on an axial shaft 1 whose ends are secured to the anchors 6. These cutters have peripheral teeth 8 which, preferably, converge inwardly, as shown in Figure 2.

Above said cutters 5 and secured to the lower end of the head I, there are the cleaning blades 9. These blades having outturned upper end portions shaped to fit against the head and which are anchored securely to the head as by welding or the like, and their lower ends are shaped to ht between the teeth so that as the cutters *5 operate the formation material will he cleaned out from between the teeth and not allowed to pack therein, and the openings 2 are distributed around over the bottom of the head I to supply washing fluid to wash away said cuttings and to carry the disintegrated material upwardly around the drill stem, through the bore.

On each side of the drill, between the cutters 5, there is a rotatable cutter or disintegrator It] having a frusto-conical shaped body and peripheral, disintegrating teeth II on the body. The bodies of these cutters converge downwardly, but their inner ends are spaced apart to provide clearance for the cutters 5.

The cutters I!) are mounted to rotate on axial shafts l2, [2, whose outer ends are secured to the outer anchors l3, l3, and whose inner ends are anchored to the spaced inner anchors l4, H4. The teeth II are elongated and, preferably, converge inwardly.

There are the cleaning blades I5, similar to the blades 9 and whose upper ends are securely anchored to the lower end of the head and whose lower ends are outwardly turned to fit between the teeth H, as best shown in Figure 1. These blades prevent packing of the earth material between the blades I I but constantly remove said formation as the cutters rotate, and the formation is washed out by the flushing fluid passing downwardly through the openings 2.

A drill of the type described will not only speed up the drilling of the bore but by keeping the penetrating teeth clean so that they will readily take hold of the formation will conduce to a straighter well bore.

The drawings and description are illustrative merely and not restrictive, while the principle of the invention will be defined by the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. An earth formation disintegrating drill comprising, a head having a substantially hemispherical lower portion formed with passageways in communication with the interior of the head and leading to the exterior thereof, disintegrating roller cutters transversely of the head and mounted beneath the head peripheral teeth on the cutters converging toward the axis of the head and cleaning blades whose upper ends are formed with outturned portions shaped to lit against said lower portion and anchored to the head and whose lower ends diverge from the axis of the head and extend between the teeth of the cutters, as the cutters rotate.

2. An earth formation disintegrating drill comprising, a head having a lower downwardly convexed surface portion, anchors depending from the head, transverse cutters mounted between the anchors and having peripheral teeth, cleaning blades having laterally extending upper end portions shaped to fit against said surface portion and anchored thereto and extending downwardly between the anchors and whose lower ends are aligned with and extend into the spaces between the teeth as the cutters rotate to prevent collection of earth formation in said spaces, said head having passageways for supplying drilling fluid to the cutters.

3. An earth formation disintegrating drill comprising, a hollow head having a downwardly curved lower surface portion and passageways in communication with the interior of the head and opening outwardly through said portion, anchors depending from the head, transversely aligned cutters between a pair of said anchors which extend entirely across the head. and whose inner ends abut, a shaft on which said cutters rotate, downwardly converging cutters between the transversely aligned cutters, shafts on which said downwardly converging cutters are mounted to rotate, spaced anchors on opposite sides of the head by which said last named shafts are supported, peripheral teeth on the cutters, blades having laterally extending upper end portions shaped to fit against said surface portion and secured thereto and which extend downwardly between the anchors and have free ends aligned with and adapted to project into the circumferential spaces of the cutters between the teeth as the cutters rotate.

' WILLIAM L. PEARCE.

ReferencesCited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,660,309 Duda Feb. 21, 1928 1,778,966 Stokes Oct. 21, 1930 1,781,413 Slocombe et a1. Nov. 11, 1930 1,908,049 Reed May 9, 1933 2,216,894 Stancliff Oct. 8, 1940 

